"One way to make sure crime doesn't pay would be to let the government run it"

This quote by Ronald Reagan is an amusing way of making a point about the ineffectiveness of government bureaucracy. Reagan is suggesting that if the federal government were to take over the criminal underworld, it would be so inefficient and inadequate that criminal offense would no longer be profitable. He is suggesting that the government is too sluggish and inefficient to be able to successfully manage a criminal business. He is likewise recommending that the federal government is too inept to be able to efficiently fight criminal offense. Reagan is making a point that the federal government is not efficient in efficiently handling or combating criminal activity, and that the only method to ensure criminal offense does not pay is to leave it to the private sector. Reagan's quote is an amusing method of making a point about the ineffectiveness of federal government administration and its inability to effectively manage or fight criminal offense.